Secret Weapon? Conspiracy Theories Abound as US Military Closes HAARP

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The U.S. Air Force has notified Congress that it intends to shut
down HAARP, a controversial Alaska-based research facility that
studies an energetic and active region of the upper atmosphere.

Conspiracy theorists are abuzz about the news, given that HAARP
(short for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) has
long been the center of wild speculation that the program is
designed to
control the weather — or worse. In 2010, Venezuelan leader
Huge Chavez claimed that HAARP or a program like it
triggered the Haiti earthquake.

For the record, the Haitian quake of 2010 was caused by the
slippage of a
previously unmapped fault along the border of the Caribbean
and North American tectonic plates.

HAARP is a research program designed to analyze the ionosphere, a
portion of the upper atmosphere that stretches from about 53
miles (85 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth to 370 miles
(600 km) up. The program has been funded by the Air Force, the
Navy, the University of Alaska and DARPA (the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency). [ Top
10 Conspiracy Theories ]

Why HAARP exists

The U.S. military is interested in the ionosphere because this
portion of the atmosphere plays a role in transmitting radio
signals. HAARP sends radio beams into the ionosphere to study the
responses from it — one of the few ways to accurately measure
this inaccessible part of the atmosphere.

HAARP operates out of the HAARP Research Station in Gakona,
Alaska, where it has a high-power radio frequency transmitter
that can perturb a small portion of the ionosphere. Other
instruments are then used to measure the perturbations.

The goal of the program is to understand the physics of the
ionosphere, which is constantly responding to influences from the
sun. Solar flares can send solar particles racing toward Earth,
occasionally
disrupting communications and the electrical grid. If
scientists could better understand what happens in the
ionosphere, they might be able to mitigate some of these
problems.

But the Air Force is no longer interested in maintaining HAARP,
according to David Walker, the Air Force deputy assistant
secretary for science, technology and engineering.

At a Senate hearing on May 14, Walker said the Air Force has no
interest in maintaining the site, and is moving in another
direction in ionospheric research.

Politics and conspiracy

The Air Force's plan to destroy HAARP has detractors.

"While the Air Force neither wants nor appreciates the unique
value of HAARP, users from several federal agencies, laboratories
and universities, and friendly nations such as Canada, Britain,
Taiwan, South Korea, Sweden and Norway, are eager to use its
unique resources, which would further spread American influence
and leadership," Dennis Papadopoulos, a professor of physics and
astronomy at the University of Maryland, wrote in an outraged
opinion piece in
the Alaska Dispatch.

HAARP cost more than $290 million to build, much of it earmarked
by late Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who had great influence
over the U.S. defense budget during his time in Congress. The
site was host to numerous projects over the years, including the
creation of the
first man-made aurora in 2005. The site's generators now
require remediation to meet the environmental standards set in
the Clean Air Act, an expense no one seems keen to take
on.

But conspiracy theorists think HAARP's purpose is far more
sinister than meets the eye. The program has been blamed for
everything from global warming to natural disasters to mysterious
humming noises in the sky.

Name a natural phenomenon, and someone probably suspects HAARP of
being behind it. Online, conspiracy theorists suggest that HAARP
was to blame for the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan; the
Moore, Oklahoma, tornado of 2013; a landslide in 2006 in the
Philippines; and many more natural disasters. Other conspiracy
theories hold that HAARP controls people's minds or is capable of
altering the very fabric of reality.

These theories have yet to subside, even though very little has
been going on at HAARP over the past year. In May 2013, the site
shut down during a change in operations contractors. At the time,
the HAARP program manager told reporters that the site was
temporarily closed and locked, with only one DARPA project left
to wrap up by early 2014.